Our efforts to reuse the reception desk turned in to a mini nightmare. The painting of the base went as planned: dark grey paint sprayed on and let to dry. The painting of the four surfaces (2 for the desk, 2 for the counter) became a pain in the you-know-what when the black paint WOULD NOT DRY! After two weeks of it air drying, baking in our finishing ovens, and sitting in the sun, it still could not be considered completely dry . . . so we sealed it. (This was actually Jeff's decision and I think he was a little nervous about doing it.) The 2 desk surfaces have done ok so far with the water based poly. The upper surfaces were sealed with a thick mixing resin, like the thick clear coating you'd see on a bar or restaurant table.
It truly became a "fiasco" when the thick resin hardened too quickly and in some parts pulled away from the paint. It was not consistent enough to claim that that was the texture we were going for: smooth and thick as glass, then bubbly, then not even covering the paint, all on one surface. It was gross! Our finishing expert, Bob, said they were fire wood.
After the resin failure we used bondo to fill the dips. After sanding and priming I determined there were still too many imperfections to paint and poly it. I decided to re-texture it with drywall compound (spackle), primed, and painted it with loose brush strokes. After a coat of poly, it resembles a venetian plaster look. And I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.
The previous explaination of the steps we went through probably bored or confused you; we were just frustrated. To say the least, I'm glad that the surfaces are done.
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